


the courage of stars

by mygreatwidesomewhere



Series: 23 Days of Wonder [2]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M, bedtime story, parents! renhyuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:40:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28105626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mygreatwidesomewhere/pseuds/mygreatwidesomewhere
Summary: renjun tells his daughter a story of two boys - the boy who travelled the galaxy and the boy who waited for him.
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Lee Donghyuck | Haechan
Series: 23 Days of Wonder [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2055987
Comments: 5
Kudos: 33





	the courage of stars

**Author's Note:**

> hello! this is another drabble for 23 Days of Wonder, this time for day 7 (bed time story) which it seems i'm a bit late for >< i wanted to make this kind of angsty (i was listening to saturn by sleeping at last the whole time so i was in my feels haha) though whether it really is angsty is another qn but i still hope you enjoy! 
> 
> (p.s. just a note, the name of renhyuck's daughter, byul, means star!)

“Dad?”

A voice, tentative and raspy with sleep, calls out to Renjun as he steps into his room and switches the light on. It had been a long, tiring day at work and he was hoping to just flop onto bed to catch up on some desperately-needed rest. He hadn’t expected to be met with a messy tuft of hair and round, bleary eyes peeking out from under his blanket.

Shrugging his coat off, he approaches the small lump lying on his bed, reaching out to brush away the stray strands of hair caught in his young daughter’s mouth. “Byul, baby, what are you doing over there? Shouldn’t you be sleeping in your own room?”

“I couldn’t sleep and I just thought it’d be easier here.” Byul’s heart-shaped lips purse, turning into a familiar pout, one that Renjun has always been weak to, “Can’t I just stay here with you for tonight? Pretty please with a cherry on top?” 

Renjun simply can’t say no to his daughter’s pleading eyes plus there’s a part of him that wants this too, to make up for all the time they had lost when he was out working. It feels like it was just yesterday when she came to him like a gift and before he even knew it, she had grown so much. He remembers hearing his co-workers groan about how their children were already in their rebellious phase, not even wanting to breathe the same air as their parents so he’s grateful he can still experience this. 

That’s how he finds himself in bed with his seven-year-old daughter lying on top of him, her head pressing on his chest and her small arms tightly wrapped as far around him as they can get. He makes a brief comparison between her and a koala but then decides against saying out loud for fear of her whining his ear off so he can’t even sleep. Not that he can easily get some shut-eye anyways, what with her already begging him to tell her a bedtime story. And as always, he relents. “Well, what kind of story do you want to hear?”

She hums into Renjun’s stomach and it’s so ticklish it makes him laugh, something he finds is surprisingly hard to do when there’s that much weight pressing on his body. Finally, she frees him from the breathlessness when she lifts her head upon deciding on what she wants. “The one about the space traveller! It’s my favourite and I haven’t heard it in so long so you just  _ have _ to tell it again.” 

It makes him smile, the fact that this story has always been so special to his daughter, that she listens to it with so much interest and awe, that it makes her so happy. He’s not sure why he created that story or told it to her in the first place, because there are some fragments in there that still cut him like shards of glass. A part of him had wanted to protect her from all that, shower her with tales of fairies and rainbows and happiness instead but now he’s glad he didn’t, because it seems like she’s the one who’s been protecting him all this while. What had once been merely a source of pain, one that he willingly took on as something he thought he deserved, had been transformed in the palm of his little girl’s hands into a treasure trove of mystery and fascination. A reminder of who he used to be.

And so it comes more easily to him than it did the last time he had told the story and even more easily than the times before that. Renjun speaks once again of a boy who dreamed of touching the moon and the stars. He speaks of the people who doubted and laughed at him once it became apparent that he stood by that dream even as he grew older and older. He speaks of how the boy proved them all wrong and traversed the galaxy he had once only been able to see from the ground. And amidst the inspirational telling of the boy’s triumph and the grandiose, vivid descriptions of his adventures far from Earth, Renjun spoke of another boy - the boy who loved the space traveller. 

“You see, that boy had always believed in the space traveller, even when everyone else told him to stop dreaming and give up. Whenever he hit rock bottom and felt that it was impossible for him to ever go to space, his friend would come over to his house with all these beautiful pictures of the galaxy.” Then he prompted, “ And what would he say?” 

Knowing the lines by heart, Byul’s eyes gleamed as she recited them, “The universe was made to be seen by your eyes.”

For such a long story, Renjun couldn’t possibly remember everything he’s told word for word so every time Byul asked to hear it, he’d tell it in different ways, paraphrased with the use of different expressions and whatnot. But never this line. It was seared into his mind long ago. “Exactly,” he whispered, a melancholy smile on his face. “And those words kept the space traveller going every step of the way.” 

“Was that why the space traveller was so brave?”

“Of course. The planets, the stars, they’re all incredibly beautiful, the space traveller could attest to that. But it was also very scary up there, a vast and unfamiliar world with no other forms of life. So whenever the loneliness and the fear caught up to him, he would think of those words. And most importantly, he would think of the boy waiting for him back home.”

Renjun always had a hard time with this part of the story, too lost in the ocean of his feelings threatening to pour out, getting caught in his throat along with the words he wanted to say. “And that boy, he was always waiting, no doubt about it. Even when they were separated for a long time, even when it was hard and he never knew when they would meet again, he waited. Because he promised, long ago. And he made that promise because he loved the space traveller, he loved him so much that he supported a dream that would send him far away.”

It’s only when Byul’s small hands reach out for his face that he’s fully pulled back to the present. “Dad? You look like you want to cry,” she asks, worry lacing her tone while she gently strokes his cheek as if wiping away the phantom tears. “You always look so sad when you talk about this part. I’m sorry for making you tell me the story again. Let’s just go to sleep.”

She makes a move to shift aside to just let him sleep but Renjun wraps his arms around her tighter. “No, it’s okay baby,” he assures her with a kiss on the top of her head. “This is the painful part of the story but that’s why it’s so important.” 

With a shuddered breath, he goes on. “They loved each other so dearly, y’know? They thought about each other wherever they were, no matter how far apart. They had their own separate paths that led them to different places but at the end of the day, they were each other’s home.”

“But they didn’t get to see each other again, did they?” Byul murmurs sadly.

Renjun’s stomach twists. He could weave tales of how wondrous and majestic the universe is, of the great sea of stars extending far beyond where the eyes could see, of how the planets dance around the sun, but to what end? “No, they didn’t. The boy on earth waited for a very long time, he never stopped waiting for the day he would meet the space traveller again, not for as long as he lived. He would’ve waited for an eternity, I’m sure, because he was just that kind of person. But by the time the space traveller returned to tell all his stories, he was no longer there.” 

Before Renjun can even continue to wrench his own heart open, Byul interjects, “But Dad, do you know what I think?”

“Oh?” There’s something comforting in how his daughter looks at him, sleepy but with a hint of determination and certainty that reminds him of someone from long ago. “ Isn’t this the first time you’ve tried to add something to the story? Go on then.”

“I think the boy who waited was happy. I think he lived happily right to the very end, knowing that the boy he loved was fulfilling his dreams. And he knew just how much he meant to you, I’m sure that made him the happiest boy alive.” 

He wonders about how long Byul has known. It doesn’t surprise him though, she’s just as perceptive as her father after all. There was never a secret he could hide from the boy with whom he shared his life and all his dreams with. And whenever he noticed something was off, he would bring with him all the stars to cheer him up. Even now, even though he’s no longer around, Donghyuck’s star brightens up his darkest days.

The tale of the space traveller is one of dreams and hope and resilience but also one of longing and unsaid goodbyes.  _ But _ , Renjun thinks as he stares at the small child falling asleep on top of him, a sight and a face so reminiscent of happier times in the past and happier times to come,  _ it’s also a tale that goes on _ .

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! i'd be really happy to know what you thought of this <3
> 
> here's my [twt](https://twitter.com/haethewitch) if you ever want to chat^^


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